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Carmen Concilio and Richard J. Lane (eds), /m ageTechnologies in Canadion Literoture: Narrotive, Film, ond Photogrophy (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2009) 164pp. Paper' I27.50. f sBN 978-90-5201 -47 4-6.
This engaging, if slim, volume explores the significance of film and photographywirhin canadian lirerary narradves. 'lmage technologies" sate the cdirors, 'permeare . . . canadian lirerature to the point of merging and blending with written texts so as tn create hytrrid, complex works of art' (p. I l). The eighr essa.vs collected here (by canadian and ltalirn scholars) each assess the implications of the'merging and blending'of the visual worltl and rhe wrirten word as it plays out in texts by authors includilg Michael Ondaatie' Ann-Marie MacDonald, Robert Kroetsch 4nd Daphne Marlatt. (One film, the 1965 NFII documenrary Ladies and Gentlemen . .. Mr Leondrd Cohen is also examined.) The result is a worthwhile collection that paves the way for future research in this exciting fiekl.
1n a rather diffirse introductory essay, Carmen Concilio sers our the scope of the volunrc via an analysis of the importance of photography in Ondaatje's most recent novcl Diuisadno andhis earlier rexa. Three essays dedicated to Ondaatje's work may seem excessive in an eiplhr-essay coliection, and they do serve to unbalance the volume somewhat. Nonetheless, the following wo pieces on ondaatje by Lucia Boldrini and Jeffrey orr avoid reperirion
"nd.n-pl.^.nt each other (and Concilioì introduction) in inreresring ways. Boldrini's 'The Anamorphosis of Phorography' explores the slippery relationship berween writren rext and image(s) in The collectedvorhs of BillT the Kid, while orr insighdullV addresses a range of Ondaatie texts through the concept of intersemiotic ranslation, examining the negotiations beween che visual and the ve rbd'in ComingThrough Skughter, Runningin the Family, In the Shin of a Lion and The English Patienr. 'Photographic translarion', Orr argues, is, for Ondaatje, 'both a marerial process thar moves an image 'inro
words, and a way of reading that allows undersranding to begin with the body (p.63). The most successful of rhe other essays situate their readings within the context of previous work on photography and film in Canadian fiction and theories by Benjamin, Barrhes and Sontag. Ron Bonham cogently traces the significance ofcinematic techniques and allusions in MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees, and Frances Sprout explores the significance of references to the photochemical process in Daphne Marlatt's Tahen. Simona Bertacco contribures a compelling comparative analysis of Marlattt Srrueston and Kroesch's The Ledger,whrle Richard lane explores the'dialecrical images' of canada olfered in the work of Joseph Dandurand and Sun Douglas.
A disappointing aspect of the volurne is irs fàilure ro engage in detail with more ffhn-texts, particularly since Keith Harrisonì analysis of Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr Leonard Cohenis one ofthe highlights ofthe volume, albeir one that is rather tangentially relered ro the other essays. But this is not a book that seeks to be comprehensivei rather its most stimulating and incisive essays invite further exploracions of the role of the filmic and the photographic in Canadian literary texts.
